The California High-Speed Rail Authority is making its rounds in local communities in an outreach effort to connect with all of the cities that will be affected by the largest infrastructure project in California history.

On Jan. 28, Ben Tripousis, the northern regional director for High-Speed Rail, gave a presentation to the Sunnyvale Rotary Club and on Feb. 5 to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

“The challenge for the Bay Area in the short term is trying to complete much of the planning that has to happen before we get to environmental clearance,” Tripousis said. “So, our job over the next two years is doing what we’re doing, which is getting to local communities, talking to everyone from folks like the leadership group, to every Rotary and Chamber and stakeholder group and local communities as much as possible.

“We’re working with all the cities throughout our northern region to ensure that their general plans reflect the high-speed rail project in a meaningful way.”

The environmental clearance for the portion that will be between San Jose and Merced is expected to be accomplished by 2016, Tripousis said, and the authority will come back and do a high-speed rail environmental clearance between San Francisco and San Jose by 2017-18.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority is responsible for planning, designing, building and operating the system. It wasn’t until this year that High-Speed Rail had the resources to put the already developed outreach plan in place, Tripousis said.

In the Bay Area, there are already two high-speed rail-related projects under way. The Transbay Transit Center, which is under construction, is where the high-speed rail will initiate its service from San Francisco and is expected to complete construction in 2017.

The Caltrain electrification project is the next big project that’s going to be the precursor to high-speed service on the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose. SB 1029 will provide $705 million for the electrification of the peninsula rail corridor where the Caltrain system operates, allowing for the replacement of diesel trains and eventually connecting Caltrain with high-speed rail.

The electrification process is in the midst of its environmental impact review, the draft of which is expected to be completed this month and final version in December of this year. Construction is anticipated to begin in early 2015 and in operation by 2019.

By 2029, the system will run from San Francisco to the Los Angeles basin in under three hours at speeds capable of more than 200 miles per hour.

Public dollars for the project have been identified as $3.3 billion in federal and $9.95 billion in state bond money. Tripousis stipulated the authority would go back to the voters eventually if additional public dollars were needed.

The total cost is estimated at $68 billion for the statewide project. San Jose to Merced is estimated at $5.4 billion alone.

As the very large pieces of the high-speed puzzle come together, the authority said it will continue to make connections with cities across the state to build a shared vision.

“While it’s been controversial, as Gov. Brown has said many times, it’s time for California to think about doing great things again,” Tripousis said. “We have been about the business of creating legacy projects in California and the high-speed rail is, I believe, the next one in that long successful line of legacy projects that will serve the state for the next 100 years.”